Falcons Earn Victory Over Mississippi State For Program's 800th Win

Thursday, September 15

Ann Arbor, Mich.

6:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

5-5,0-0MAC

RV Mississippi State

7-2,0-0SEC

Mississippi St.

Bowling Green

Photo by: Morgan Holscher, BGSU Athletics

Falcons Earn Victory Over Mississippi State For Program's 800th Win

September 15, 2022 | Volleyball

Box Score BGSU-Mississippi State Box Score Support Our Student-Athletes

By: by Kyle Edmond, BGSU Athletics

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – The Bowling Green State University volleyball program picked up a five-set victory over Mississippi State on Thursday (Sept. 15) to begin the Michigan Challenge. The win marks the 800th in program history for the Falcons while also going down as Coach Tomic's 175th win as the head coach of the Bowling Green Falcons. The win will go down as the second of the season for BGSU against a team receiving votes in the AVCA coaches poll, previously defeating Tennessee earlier this season.

The Falcons were paced in the victory effort by freshman Lauryn Hovey who landed a team-high 15 kills to go along with 15 assists, both career-highs, for her first career double-double. Petra Indrova logged a double-double as well for the Falcons with 14 kills and 13 digs while Yelianiz Torres came one assist shy of a double-double with 16 digs and nine assists. The win moves BGSU to 5-5 on the season with Michigan next up on the schedule.

How It Happened
Set 1: Bowling Green 26, Mississippi State 24

The Falcons were able to put together an early 3-0 run to take a 4-1 lead in the match.
BGSU was able to hold that lead and added another 3-0 run later in the set to extend the Bowling Green lead to 17-10.
Out of the timeout, Mississippi State went on a 5-1 stretch, including a 3-0 run, to narrow the gap to 18-15, prompting a Bowling Green timeout. The Bulldogs put together another 3-0 run to bring the score to 19-18 BGSU, before tying it up at 20-20.
The ties continued and forced extra points late in the set. Alex Laboy landed an ace to put BGSU up 25-24 with Mississippi State answering with a timeout. Out of the break, the Orange and Brown tallied a third straight point to take the first set in extra points, 26-24.

Set 2: Bowling Green 25, Mississippi State 23

The Falcons carried the momentum of the first set win into the second set, jumping to a 4-0 lead. Another 3-0 run later in the set extended the Bowling Green lead to 9-3 and forced a timeout from the Bulldogs. The run for BGSU reached 6-0 to go up 12-3.
Mississippi State soon battled back with a 3-0 run to close the deficit to 14-8 Falcons and another 3-0 stretch to bring the score to 20-16 BGSU and force a timeout from the Bowling Green bench.
The run continued through the timeout for Mississippi State, bringing the score to 20-19 with a 6-0 stretch and another timeout from the Falcons. The run stretched to 8-0 to put the Bulldogs ahead 21-20.
The Falcons were able to move back in front and take the second set with a 25-23 score to go up 2-0 in the match.

Set 3: Mississippi State 26, Bowling Green 24

The third set began back-and-forth before a 4-0 run for the Falcons created an 8-5 BGSU lead and forced Mississippi State to burn a timeout.
The set remained close with Mississippi State closing the gap at 18-17 BGSU with Bowling Green calling a timeout.
Out of the timeout, the Falcons responded with a 3-0 run to push the lead to 21-17, however the Bulldogs answered with a 4-0 run of their own to bring the score to a 21-21 tie.
The ties continued at 23-23 with Mississippi State moving in front 24-23 to prompt a Bowling Green timeout. The Falcons were able to tie it up at 24-24 and force extra points, but the Bulldogs took the set 26-24 to force a fourth set.

Set 4: Mississippi State 25, Bowling Green 16

The fourth set started back-and-forth, but a 3-0 run for Mississippi State created a 9-5 lead for the Bulldogs with Bowling Green taking a timeout. Mississippi State added two more points to the run, ending up 11-5.
The lead held for the Bulldogs up to a 20-13 score where the Falcons called their second timeout.
The Bulldogs took the fourth set and forced a fifth with a 25-16 set score.

Set 5: Bowling Green 15, Mississippi State 8

The Falcons tallied the first three points of the third set to jump out to a quick 3-0 lead. The BGSU lead would stretch to 5-1 to prompt a timeout from Mississippi State.
Mississippi State utilized a 4-0 run of their own to cut into the Bowling Green lead at 7-6 with the Falcons taking a timeout this time.
The trading of runs continued with the Falcons seeing a 3-0 run to push ahead 11-7 and force the second Mississippi State timeout of the set. Mississippi State tallied the next point, but another 4-0 run gave the Falcons the fifth set and the match victory.

Falcon Stat Leaders
Kills: Lauryn Hovey (15)
Assists: Jaden Walz (29)
Digs: Yelianiz Torres (16)
Aces: Alex Laboy (2)
Blocks: Alexis Mettille (8)

Falcon Stat Facts

The win for the Falcons checked off a few milestone victories. For the program, the win marked the 800th all-time. As for Coach Tomic, the win brings her career total at Bowling Green to 175 victories at the helm of the Falcons.
Lauryn Hovey put together a strong performance for the Falcons. Hovey not only led the Falcons with a team-high, and new career-high, 15 kills, but she also tallied a career-high 15 assists for her first career double-double with the Falcons. Hovey tacked on a career-high five digs as well.
Hovey wasn't the only one to log a double-double for the Falcons. Petra Indrova contributed 14 kills and 13 digs to the BGSU effort, her third double-double of the season. Indrova added her first solo block of the season as well as a season-high four block assists.
Alexis Mettille was a force at the net for the Falcons. Mettille logged a career-high three solo blocks. She paired that with five block assists, matching her career-high for block assists, for a total of eight blocks to set a new career-high.
On the attack, Mia Tyler registered a new career-high 12 kills on a career-high 37 attack attempts.
Yelianiz Torres did a little bit of everything for the Orange and Brown. In addition to leading the Falcons in digs with 16, Torres was also an assist shy of a double-double with a career-high nine assists. She also landed her first kill of the season.
Bowling Green is now 2-0 when facing Mississippi State, also topping the Bulldogs during the 1999 season.

Quote From Coach Tomic
"This was a big win for us tonight. Not only because we beat a very good Mississippi State team but because of how we did it. It's not easy to gain the momentum back after losing two sets going into a fifth set. We are proud of our team and how they refocused and executed at a high level when it mattered most. That's a sign of mental toughness and what we call a Warriors Mindset. Our serving was strong again and made a big difference. The biggest improvement from last week was our offense. Having four hitters in double-digit kills shows how powerful our offense can be."

Up Next
The Falcons will conclude the non-conference schedule and the Michigan Challenge on Sunday (Sept. 18) against the Michigan Wolverines. The match is set for a 2:00 p.m. first serve and will be played at the Crisler Center.

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